Young pinot noir kicks off strange flavors, and this single vineyard bottling from Zepaltas has acids so high that there are tangible citrus & orange peel notes that are out-of-place enough to be distracting to what is otherwise an enjoyable wine. Spell, also made a single vineyard bottling from Barton Vineyards (which came out nicely) so I'm going to reserve judgment on this until I've tasted it again when it has more bottle age on it (and time to fully integrate its components).
This wine is definitely an ager, and on purpose. This wine was fermented on 50% whole clusters and the fruit came in with textbook perfect acidity. It is meant to age a few years, and for sure to be paired with food. At least that is what i am going for with my wines..
Thanks for the writeup,
Ryan Zepaltas
Posted by: ryan | November 17, 2009 at 11:09 AM